Carter’s crazy shot keeps Aggies in hunt

COLLEGE STATION — Josh Carter might have hushed Nebraska’s Bob DeVaney Center, but he touched off a roar late Fat Tuesday in Aggieland.

I know because I stepped outside of our home and heard horns honking immediately after Carter’s crazy 3-pointer at the buzzer defeated the Cornhuskers 57-55 — and kept the Aggies’ NCAA tournament hopes alive and kicking.

“It was lucky it went in,” Carter told reporters afterward. “It felt like I got hit on the shot and I didn’t get to see it. I knew it was good when my teammates were running at me.”

Unlike players and coaches, sportswriters don’t have to take it one game at a time. Why I figure the Aggies’ regular-season finale against Missouri at Reed Arena on March 7 will be huge for the Aggies’ postseason hopes.

A&M, now 20-8 overall and 6-7 in Big 12 play, is on a three-game winning streak. The Aggies’ final three games, after a brutal start to league play (1-4) against some of the conference’s best teams, is favorable for a six-game winning streak headed into the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City.

The Aggies play host to 3-10 Iowa State at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, before traveling to 1-11 Colorado in one week. They should — and that’s a big “should” — win both, before playing host to No. 11 Missouri the following Saturday to close out the regular season.

With so much on the line — essentially a berth in the NCAA postseason will be at stake for A&M — it should be a great game in a rowdy Reed Arena.

In an aside, we already knew Nathan Walkup could throw it down like that because he did the same thing at Oklahoma — but Dash Harris?

His incredible dunk over Nebraska guard Cookie Miller symbolized A&M’s big-time comeback Tuesday, and for what’s shaping up as a wild finish in the Aggies’ quest to make a fourth consecutive NCAA tournament.